An Owl in the Backyard

This is simply a short note of a bird that I heard from inside my house on 03-22-2014 at 3:45am. It was an owl, hooting in our backyard. We do not keep an official list of all the birds we've seen or heard in the backyard. That would be a "Yard List". Neither Berry nor I keep such a list. But this is the first time that I have ever heard an owl in my yard. The only detail I know is that I can exclude the Barred Owl (Strix Varia), because I heard it hooting.

What was I doing up at 3:45am, you are wondering. I was aroused from deep sleep by a sinus congestion. I was standing there in my kitchen, quietly pickling vegetables, when the owl hooted in my backyard.

Robert

March 15 at Arkabutla Lake

It is time to build a nest and we took a trip to Arkabutla Lake in Northern Mississippi to see them being built. The drive from Memphis to Arkabutla was uneventful except for the speeders on the way to the Tunica casinos. Our first stop was the Pleasant Hill boat ramp and picnic area. This is a nice secluded boat ramp that we enjoy just west of the city of Hernando. The American Coots and Pelicans dominated the water and the Killdeer dominated the rocks.

We made our way to the dam area where we saw the first of three birds gathering material for a nest. The brightly colored red headed woodpecker was dropping twigs and grass down into a hole on the side of a large tree. He went to the ground, gatherd the material then flew back up to the tree to deposit it. Off to one side of the swimming area, we saw an English Sparrow making its nest in the Purple Martin apartment house. We left the dam area and drove to the campground where we saw 4 different species of woodpecker, the Red headed Woodpecker, the Red-bellied Woodpecker, several Yellow-shafted Northern Flickers and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was busy making its nest. We hope when we go back next time, that all of these little bird homes will have babies in them. Eastern Pheobe (Sayonaris Phoebe)

• Red Tailed Hawk
• Hermit Thrush
• Rock Dove
• Common Grackle
• European Starling
• American Robin
• American Crow
• Northern Cardinal
• Black Vulture
• Northern Mockingbird
• Eastern Bluebird
• Red Winged Blackbird
• American White Pelican
• American Coot
• Mallard
• Great Blue Herron
• Song Sparrow
• Killdeer
• Turkey Vulture
• Bluejay
• Eastern Phoebe
• Ring Billed Gull
• Red Headed Woodpecker
• Red Bellied Woodpecker
• Canada Goose
• Northern Flicker (Yellow Shafted)
• Yellow Bellied Sapsucker

We stopped at a pub in Hernando, Mississippi for lunch and wrote this post for our blog.

Berry and Robert